Orphan baby rhino rescued in South Africa

This video from South Africa says about itself:

Two rhino bulls chased around a pride of six hungry lions at the waterhole Renosterpan in Kruger park, great fun to watch. Square-lipped rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum). Happened in 2009. Rhinos are being poached at an alarming rate; please help to protect these amazing animals by donating to the wildlife funds fighting rhino poaching.

From daily The Independent in South Africa:

Orphan baby rhino rescued

July 27 2015 at 08:33am

By Leanne Jansen

Durban – A baby rhino that lost its mother to poachers in the Kruger National Park has been rescued by rangers, and is settling into its new home at the Care for Wild Africa rehabilitation centre in Mpumalanga.

The rhino, not older than two months, wandered on to a road and cosied up to a tourist’s car. The tourists alerted park staff, and rangers Don English and Craig Williams helped to have it tranquillised, and flown to the rehabilitation centre.

But that was not the end of the little creature’s ordeal – it stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated along the way.

By Friday afternoon, it had recovered and was doing well, said park spokesperson William Mabasa.

Sadly, the carcass of its mother was found on Saturday, its horns removed.

Mabasa extended his gratitude to the tourists who had told rangers about the orphaned rhino and also urged the public to play an active role in conservation efforts.

“These people (poachers) live in our communities. Somebody somewhere knows who they are and where they are,” Mabasa said.

Last month the Kruger Park, which is South Africa’s largest rhino reserve, announced that it was installing boom gates along three popular tourist roads to control people entering the new Intensive Protection Zone for rhinos after nightfall.

The booms are manned by armed rangers from sunset to sunrise every day.

As part of a long-term plan, fencing will also be improved on the western and eastern borders of the park.

Earlier this year The Mercury reported on how poaching had soared to a record level of 1 215 killings countrywide last year, mostly in the Kruger Park, where the poaching rate has climbed every year since 2008.

Care for Wild Africa is home to infant, injured and orphaned animals.

Its animal hospital tends to the animals until they can be rehabilitated into the wild, and the centre welcomes volunteers to help care for distressed creatures.